Title

Authors

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1973

Abstract

The United States Supreme Court's evidentiary ruling during 1971-72 manifested a hardening attitude toward criminal defendants. For example, police stop-and-frisk authority was broadened (and with it the use of evidence obtained therefrom); the scope of the immunity from criminal prosecution required to be granted by a governmental body before self-incriminatory statements can be compelled from a witness was narrowed; the right to have counsel at line-ups was limited to post-indictment or post-charge line-ups (with a consequent broadening of the use of counselless identification evidence); the preliminary burden of proof on the government to initially prove the voluntariness of confessions was fixed at "preponderance of the evidence" rather than "beyond a reasonable doubt"; and the "harmlessness" of evidentiary constitutional error was made easier to find.